Loaded cartridge.



G. MEADOWS. LOADED CARTRIDGE. APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 7, 1907.

Patented Aug. 3, 1909.

WWNESSESA FFTQE.

GEORGE MEADOWS, OF CANTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LOADED CARTRIDGE To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE MEADOWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Canton, in the county of Norfolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Loaded Cartridge, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in a loaded shot cartridge and the object of my improvement is to increase the efficiency of such cartridge by so loading it as to reduce the scattering of the shot as it emerges from the muzzle of the gun after an explosion, and at the same time to provide a firmly and compactly loaded cartridge. I attain this object by employing a special means of closing the upper or anterior end or mouth of the cartridge. This is shown in the accompanying drawing in which is representeda longitudinal section of the up per or anterior end of a cartridge loaded in the manner proposed bymy invent-ion.

a1 represents the shell of the cartridge, 6 the shot and 0 consists of the end of the shell itself, which, as appears in the drawing, has been turned in to an amount sufiicient to fill the entire space or substantially the entire space within the circumference of the end of the loaded cartridge and then forced down upon the shot and compressed so as to form a compact partition. The turning in of the shell may be accomplished by applying to the end of the shell, a concave conical surface; then the end of the shell thus shaped into a conical form may be forced down by means of a small cylindrical block of wood or by means of a crimper, a machine which has hitherto been used to turn in slightly the end of the shell upon an independent wad or partition.

Loading a cartridge by using a partition or wad independent from the shell but firmly attached to it would be an equivalent to the invention above specified.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 7, 1907. Serial No. 377,832.

Patented Aug. 3, 1909.

A cartridge as usually loaded, with the mouth of the cartridge closed by a partition or wad independent from and not firmly attached to the shell, on its explosion, permits the partition or wad to pass forward in advance of or together with the shot to the muzzle of the firearm, and to be present there in such a manner as to deflector scatter the shot as it emerges from the confining limits of the barrel of the firearm. The effect of the explosion of the cartridge loaded as above specified on the other hand, is to reopen and force out and back the end of the shell to its original position allowing the shot to escape unobstructed by any considerable portion of the substance which has theretofore restrained them, and accordingly to allow the presence of no obstructing substance at the muzzle of the firearm. Since the deflection of the individual pieces of shot in addition to scattering them decreases their momentum and my invention avoids such deflection, the loaded cartridge above described is much more eflicient than the shot cartridge loaded with an independent partition or wad.

By forcing down the end of the shell so that the partition formed thereby sets infrom the end of the loaded cartridge as shown in the drawing, the compactness and firmness of the loading is increased.

I claim.

A loaded cartridge consisting of a shell provided with a charge of shot and means of exploding the cartridge, and having at the anterior end a wad or partition formed of the body of the shell compressed into the mouth of the same with an annular space between the periphery of the wad and the adjacent inner wall of the shell.

GEORGE MEADOVV S.

Witnesses JOHN H. DRAPER, JOSEPH P. DRAPER. 

